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Quality of Sleep Could Increase Heart Risk

Recent Study Shows Sleep Deprivation and Poor Quality of Sleep Could Increase Inflammation in Women with Heart Disease More Than Men

Women who have heart disease may be more susceptible to higher levels of inflammation caused by poor sleep than men, according to a new study published by The Journal of Psychiatric Research.

The study examined nearly 700 people with coronary heart disease with an average age of 66 for men and 64 for women, whose sleep quality and inflammation levels were analyzed at the start and end of a five-year period.

“Inflammation is a well-known predictor of cardiovascular health,” study researcher Aric Prather, Ph.D., a clinical health psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a statement. “Now we have evidence that poor sleep appears to play a bigger role than we had previously thought in driving long-term increases in inflammation levels and may contribute to the negative consequences often associated with poor sleep.”

Sleep Deprivation Increases Heart Risk

In the study, researchers found an association between poor sleep quality and women showing the “biomarkers” for inflammation associated with cardiovascular disease and stroke. Specifically, the study found that women who reported sleep deprivation (sleeping less than six hours per night) had far more inflammation than men who slept the same amount.

Researchers noted that slightly more women than men were likely to report poor sleep, such as frequent waking (81 percent of women, versus 78 percent of men), waking up too early (about 50 percent of women, versus 41 percent of men) and having a hard time falling asleep (about 33 percent of women, versus 31 percent of men).